


Wherever You Are

by RiYuYami



Series: Before the Beginning and After the End [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: AU of an AU, Canon-Typical Violence, DOMA arc, Established Relationship, F/M, M/M, One-Sided Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-04-20
Packaged: 2018-10-21 06:31:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10679655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiYuYami/pseuds/RiYuYami
Summary: Yami Yugi felt like the whole world crumbled and vanished the moment Yugi's soul was taken by the Orichalcos, what is he to do? What can he do, actually? If he even finds his partner, what will happen? Will his world come back, or will it remain gone forever?AU of Imagination's Reality, if the story had followed the second anime series' plotline rather than the manga/season one plotline.





	Wherever You Are

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so mad, I had to rewrite this whole, god damn fanfic, because of a fucking update with my tablet and it corrupting the original file. 
> 
> So... here we are, a rewrite, and it is not as good as what I had written before. Sorry.
> 
> Anyway, plot wise, this is an AU of my AU fanfic, Imagination's Reality. You don't have to read that one to get this, as this story isn't going to be involved with that story at all (Imagination's Reality is based on the original manga and season zero, not the Duel Monsters anime). But if you want a good idea of the relationship between Yami Yugi and Yugi, you can read what I have written of that story. If you're lazy like me, here's a brief plot of that story:
> 
> Yugi obtained the puzzle at age eight and communicated with the spirit guardian of the puzzle that same day, the spirit ended up living in his shadow. Two years later, at age ten, Yugi solved the puzzle and Yami Yugi performed his first Shadow Game. Six years later, Yami performs his second one during the events of the first manga chapter. The plot is similar to the original, but Yugi and Yami talk, though Yami still lives in Yugi's shadow, and Yami is falling in love with Yugi, who is oblivious.
> 
> In this AU, Yugi and Yami are already in a romantic relationship. Originally this was going to be a one shot, but I decided to make it a mini fic. It's certain episodes and scenes of season four, after Yami loses his duel to Rafael, with more angst and Yami being one hundred percent heart broken.
> 
> Again, this is just an AU of an AU, the events of this story don't affect anything that happens in Imagination's Reality, so if you like that story, there aren't any real spoilers. Except that Yugi and Yami get together, but that was going to happen anyway. Also, I'm using the English dub for this because, as much as I like the Japanese one, I feel... like there is more emotion in the dialogue with Yami and Jounouchi in this season towards the people that matter the most to them.
> 
> Warning: panic attack, written in some detail (based on my own experience, it's different for everyone)
> 
> On with the fic!

_You lost..._

_You lost the duel, you lost your soul, you lost your self control._

_There is nothing you can do but accept this, accept that your soul is now going to be taken from you. You should never have given into the darkness, that's not you anyway, you promised yourself ages ago to never get like that again. You're not the same person you were when you first played Shadow Games, you're not... you're not evil..._

_Right?_

_A hard shove knocks you forward, away from the bright, green ring that has encircled you. You blink, turning to see Yugi standing there, smiling sadly at you._  
  
_It takes only a fraction of a second for you to realize what is going on here. “Yugi! Stop! What are you doing here?!”_  
  
_He looks so defeated as he continues to smile. “It only needs one of us... so I'm letting the seal take me instead.”_  
  
_“No!_ Aibou! _” You reach towards him, watching as Yugi moves up into the sky, in a pillar of green light._

_You feel... You feel..._

_The scream that tears through your throat doesn't hurt like the pain of literally having a piece of you torn from your body as you feel the Orichalcos pull Yugi from you. The pain is too much, the light blinding, the ache in your soul..._

_Blackness surrounds you, and you know nothing more._

–

You wake up with a start, feeling a sharp, painful tightness in your chest as you try to breathe.

It takes you a moment, you struggle, gasping, before you can actually take in air once more. Blinking, you glance about, seeing that you're inside of the trailer, belonging to the Hawkins family. You can see Jounouchi, Honda, Otogi, and Anzu all sleeping in different areas of the small structure.

That's right... you're back here, after you had returned... from the...

The tightness in your chest is back and you struggle to get up. You throw off the blanket you had been covered in, the jacket you are wearing is discarded, even the puzzle it tossed aside. You remove the collar around your throat, trying to see if that will help, but you still feel so uncomfortable.

Fresh air, maybe going outside will do you some good, you need to breathe, everything hurts, the world is spinning...

You struggle with the lock, but you get the door open, almost falling on your face as you get outside. It's cold, biting, but not too bad. You gasp, taking in a few gulps of air, but your face stings. No, not your face, your eyes, you feel tears forming in your eyes as you hold yourself.

You want to be alone, but... you're so alone right now...

–

Golden eyes opened slowly, trying to adjust to the darkness of the room. Jounouchi felt like something was off, he hated having a sixth sense for such things, he just wanted to sleep. He huffed, sitting up, looking around. He found everyone else sleeping, and the clock in the little kitchen area read that it was around two in the morning.  
  
Then he looked over at one of the couches, seeing that it was empty. Only a blanket and the Other Yugi's accessories and jacket were there, but not the Other Yugi. “Yuge?” He whispered into the dark, not seeing him anywhere in the dim light of the moon that shone through the windows. He got up carefully, doing his best to not wake up the others.

He glanced about, not seeing him anywhere inside, until he noticed that the door was unlocked. Jounouchi slipped on his shoes, grabbing the spirit's shoes as well. Did he go outside without them? What the hell? And without his jacket and the puzzle? It's cold out there! And the Millennium Puzzle needs to be worn, right? It protects him?

He didn't even take his duel disk... oh God! He better not be doing something stupid!

Jounouchi threw on his own jacket, taking the puzzle, Yami's jacket, and his shoes with him as he went outside. He looked around in the dimly lit area. “Yugi?” He called out, not shouting, but just loud enough to be heard in the quiet night. “Pharaoh?”

He squinted, spotting something a ways out in the distance.

Oh, yep, there he is, sitting on a rock a few meters away. Well, at least this is better than what Jounouchi had originally thought...

He quietly made his way over to the spirit, who didn't even seem to notice him approaching. Jounouchi stared at him, the former king seemed completely out of it, just... spacing out, looking at nothing in particular. He had been crying, that much was obvious, his body looked tensed and Jounouchi couldn't tell if it was from stress or from being out in the cold. He looked to see that the Other Yugi had gone out without shoes and socks, his bare feet were dirty.

“Yugi, this is pathetic.”

The boy twitched, slowly looking up at Jounouchi with tired eyes. “Are you going to hit me again?”

“What?” Jounouchi blinked.

“You can if you want to. I deserve it.”

Jounouchi sighed loudly, shaking his head. “No, I am not gonna hit you, though that stupid shit you just said really makes me wanna. I came out here to see if you were alright, and... I'm gonna take your wet face and redder eyes as a big, fat no.”

“...” The pharaoh turned away from him, looking at the ground. “I woke up from a nightmare and came out here after I couldn't breathe.”

“Couldn't breathe?” The blond asked. “What happened?”  
  
“I had a dream, of... what happened in the duel yesterday, and I woke up, unable to breathe. My chest hurt. I got myself calmed down, but then I thought about what happened to Aibou and... and I...” He inhaled deeply, grabbing at the front of his shirt. He didn't look good at all, his eyes were wide, his breathing coming out in small gasps.  
  
“Yugi, Yugi, calm down!” Jounouchi said, putting his hands on him, petting his hair. “Shh... calm down, it's a panic attack, stop...” He honestly wasn't use to these sort of things, but when he and his little sister still lived together, he had to calm her down when they heard their parents yelling.

Then when his father got too aggressive and angry, yelling at everything and anyone in his sight, Jounouchi had to learn to keep his own panic attacks down. But right now the pharaoh was probably having his first bout of them in his recent life, so this... might be a bit troubling and difficult.

He held the shaking boy close, quietly talking to him, about everything he was looking at in the pale moonlight. He didn't know what to really say, so he just kept talking, telling him about the rocks, the shadows, the desert plants, and the little lizard he just saw run by. The spirit's breathing seemed to become more calm, more even. “I'm sorry...” He mumbled into the blond's shirt. “I... I don't know what's going on right now, with me...”

“It's called a panic attack, Yugi. They happen when you're overwhelmed and stressed, when you feel like everything just came crashing down on you. Like the world around you just vanished and you're all alone...”

“My world vanished, there is nothing left for me, my light... I sent my partner away...”

Jounouchi held him still, he was mad at the Other Yugi this morning for what he did to Yugi, for how he behaved afterwards, shit, he even punched the guy! But... he can't be mad, that stupid seal got the best of him, corrupted him with its evil powers, just like it did with Mai...

“Yugi...”

“Don't call me that!” The pharaoh screamed, shoving himself away. He stood up, wincing as he walked barefoot on the dirt. “I can't... I can't be called that now, I'm not... I'm not him! I'm not Aibou!”

“No... I know that, but... you're still Yugi. The Other Yugi, but still.”

The pharaoh shook, hugging himself tightly. “I don't deserve to be called that either, I am... I really am Yami Yugi, I'm an evil soul in his body.”

The blond shook his head. “Nah, Yuge, listen, what happened back there... it wasn't your fault.”  
  
“It was!” He shouted. “I played the card of my own free will! I knew better, but I still activated it, and it worked! That proves that I'm evil! Only the wicked can play such a card...”

“Fuck off with that bullshit!” Jounouchi exclaimed, standing up. “I will not stand here and listen to you spew such lies, okay?! That card, that stupid rock, they're what was messing with your mind! And that Raphael guy? Wasn't he spewing a bunch of bullshit at you about being evil, even though neither of you know about your past? Ishizu said you were a good pharaoh, and I know for a fact that you're a good guy! You're not wicked, you've just been corrupted!”  
  
Yami Yugi blinked, looking at his friend. “Jounouchi...?”  
  
“Listen to me, Yugi, you're not evil, you were just overtaken by that stupid rock you wore around your neck. I bet if you hadn't had it, you would never had played that card! If Raphael hadn't talked like that, gotten into your head, you wouldn't be here, crying and feeling like shit because you couldn't save the one you care about, the one who did so much for you and you did so much for them in return... you'd die all over again just to make them happy, to keep her safe...”

It clicked in Yami Yugi's head that Jounouchi was talking about Mai now... that's right, he wasn't the only one to lose someone important to him to the Orichalcos, Mai was corrupted, evil, she wouldn't listen to reason. She was on some quest for revenge for something that wasn't real. She was pretty much brainwashed by people who said just the right words to make her give into the darkness, just like what happened to him.

“Jounouchi... I-I'm sorry... I know you're hurting too, fuck, I'm being selfish, I'm acting like the only one who is affected by all of this... I lost one person important to me, you lost two...”

“They're not lost.” Jounouchi sighed. “They're... still here, somewhere. Mai is lost in her own mind, Yugi is... in their grasp, but he's still alive.”

“What... makes you so sure?”

Jounouchi looked at him with a sad smile. “You and Yugi are more connected than you think. You once told me that if Yugi died, you'd die as well, yeah? Ya know, during the bad Bakura's game, when we were all attacked and had almost died if it hadn't been for the good Bakura. You talked to me later, after the duel with Pegasus, when Yugi passed out. You were scared he would have died, but he didn't. You both lived.”

Yami Yugi blinked, that's right, he had said those things... and he was still here.

His soul and Yugi's were connected, the hallway between their rooms was the bridge, the rope, that connected his soul with his partner's. They could feel the other constantly, could feel their joys, their pains, their fears. They were connected more after they became lovers...

He put a hand on his chest, he didn't feel much of anything there, the hallway was dark. But Yugi's door was still there, it was just closed, a dim light shone through the cracks around the border. But it's locked, the door is locked and the pharaoh couldn't get in. Only Yugi can open his own door, his old habit of closing himself off kicked in when the seal took him away.

“He's... not in this body, his body, but his soul is still connected to it...” Yami Yugi said softly, crimson eyes looking up at honey brown ones. “But... it still hurts, he's not there, I feel so alone... it's like I'm trapped in the puzzle again, stuck wandering endless stairs and doors for the rest of time.”

The blond stared at him, frowning softly. “Yugi sure means a lot to you, doesn't he?”  
  
“You have no idea...”

“I know about you and him. Your relationship.”

The pharaoh looked up at him, shocked. He and Yugi have been so quiet and private about their relationship, especially considering it's such an odd thing. He was an ancient spirit who had been trapped in a puzzle for centuries, and Yugi was too good for him, yet the boy loved him anyway!

“How...” The Other Yugi winced, “did you...”

Jounouchi chuckled, putting his hands into his pockets. “Well, I'm a bit dim, but I'm not that dim. There's a certain tone you take on when you talk about 'em, the way you say 'Aibou' when you address him, and how Yugi says 'Other Me', there's affection in it. It's beyond a form of friendly affection, it's romantic. I know, it's weird for a tough guy like me to notice that stuff, but... you make Yugi happy, in a way that me, Anzu, Honda, or anyone else can never do. Do you remember why you fell in love with him?”

“Of course I do! Yugi... when he solved the puzzle, the darkness that surrounded me vanished. My endless loneliness was gone, there was a beautiful light there that made me happy. He was my first friend is so long, and I was his. He was perfect from the start, he's fantastic, he cared about me, and all I wanted to do was protect him, keep him safe, right from the moment I heard his voice. I wanted to repay him for giving me light, for ending my torture. When... when I saw how brave he was, protecting you and Honda, I felt something... I think that's when I started to fall for him, but I didn't know. I knew Yugi was strong, he could fight, but I... made it my mission to help him anyway, I ignored my feelings, but then they became too strong and I fell in love. And he fell for me, all on his own, he's the one to told me he loved me, he didn't know I had feelings for him, heh...

“But I fell in love with him for him, for everything that makes Yugi... Yugi. I can't explain it, it's something I can't put into words. He's just Aibou, Yugi, and I love him.”

The taller boy sighed, looking up at the sky. “Yugi loves you, greatly. And... I know you fucked up, and I really want to punch ya for what you did, but I can't. I know Yugi would never forgive me if I hurt you, hell, he'll be mad when he finds out what I did, but he loves you, he trusts you.”

The other scoffed. “I doubt he'll trust me again.”

“Hey now, no more of that shit.” Jounouchi frowned, narrowing his eyes. He bent down a bit, getting into the Other Yugi's face. “Listen buddy, I think you need to stop beating yourself up over this. You keep going right into the negative thoughts of the situation. You gotta think of the positives!”

“And what are the positives of a situation where I betrayed my best friend and lover, sending his soul to the enemy, to be used for whatever horrible thing that the enemy has planned? Hm? What could I possibly find positive about all that shit?!” He got a small smack on the back of the head. “Ow! Hey! You said you weren't going to hit me!”

“I said I wasn't going to punch you.”

“Same thing!”

“Nope!” The blond grinned. “Listen man, I know it sucks, really, I mean, do you know how shitty I feel about Mai?! I feel like I broke her, ruined her whole life, her whole world! But I'm not crying and beating myself up over it, I'm not looking at only the negatives of what happened. I know that I can fix this, that I can help her, save her from the darkness. You gotta think that as well! Think about saving Yugi! We're going to the enemy's territory tomorrow, to fight them head on! To take back what was stolen from us, and, ya know, save the world as well, hehe.”

He put a hand on the smaller boy's head, ruffling up his hair. “Can you promise me that?”

“... I can try.” Yami Yugi gave him a small, sad smile. “But... what will happen when I get him back?”

“Well, knowing Yugi, he'll be steamed.” Jounouchi saw him wince again. “But he'll forgive you. He's over the moon for you, he'll forgive you, just give him time, okay? He has forgiven people before for stupid things they've done. Yugi forgave me for what I did before we became friends, he forgave Kaiba for... ya know, the shit he did. He forgave you for almost killing Kaiba, he'll forgive you again.”

The pharaoh gave a nod. “Yeah... that's true. Not sure on the others. Anzu is upset, Honda and Otogi are nervous of me, Kaiba is beyond furious, though that's for a stupid reason, and Rebecca... well, I doubt that she'll ever trust me again, even if I do save Aibou.”

“ _When_ you save him, you mean.”

“Yeah, we'll see how everything goes. But I think the worst thing I've done aside from the obvious is... I betrayed Black Magician Girl and Timaeus. They were counting on me... when I played the Seal of Orichalcos, Timaeus vanished, he refused to be on the field after I played it. Black Magician Girl just... looked at me like I had struck her. I might as well have.”

Jounouchi shook his head. “I saw. And, well... they'll forgive you, but they might be hurt.”

“I don't want to duel at all right now, or probably for a while.” The spirit sighed, shaking his head. “But I will have to, in order to save humanity, to help you save Mai, and to get Aibou back. Though... will the cards trust me? I had just used them so horribly, I was so mean to them. Timaeus, I felt his pain, something cried out into my soul when I saw that look in his eye, that look of hurt and betrayal. I begged the cards to forgive me before Rafael's Eatos struck me down, defeating me, but... I don't know if they listened...”

“They did.” Jounouchi spoke softly. “I'm sure of it, and when I'm sure of something, it's, like, 99% of the time correct! And one percent is usually cause something fucks it up for me at the last second.” He smiled when he got an honest laugh out of his friend at that. “There we go, I got a smile outta you!”

“Yeah, looks like you did.” The Other Yugi replied, the smile was small, but still on his lips. “Thanks for... talking to me. I know there's a lot more to discuss and stuff, but I think I'll bring it up when I'm ready. Though some things I would like to speak to Aibou about in private, between the two of us.”

“Gotcha. But when you're ready, just pull me aside, I'll be there to listen.”

“Thank you, Jounouchi. That means a lot to me.”

The taller of the two grinned, rubbing at his nose. “Heh, no problem. Now let's get you inside, you've gotta be freezing, and, uh, next time you wanna go outside and cry, put on shoes and socks.”

“I wasn't exactly in the best state of mind, Jounouchi.”

“Oh, right, I forgot.” He reached down, picking up the shoes he had brought outside, handing them over to Yami Yugi. “Let's get some sleep, we've got a long train ride tomorrow, who knows what'll happen, ya know?”

The spirit nodded, taking the shoes before slipping them on. He took his jacket and Millennium Puzzle, putting them on as well. “Promise me you'll save Mai like I will save Yugi, yes?” He held out his hand.

Jounouchi looked at it, smiling, before giving it a tight grip. “You got it. You take care of our best friend, and I'll handle the Harpy Queen.” He grinned, though there was a sad look in those brown eyes of his.

This was hard on both of them, they had difficult tasks to deal with, missions that could make or break things with the people they love most. But Yami Yugi felt that things might... well... they might get better, if they do everything they can to save the world and their friends.

But it will not be easy, either of them knew what was to come tomorrow.

TBC

 

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, if you read Imagination's Reality, forgive me for calling Yami a billion different things, but for most of this chapter, it was mainly through Jounouchi's point of view, so he's going to call him by different things since I have in my notes for the story that everyone really just calls him whatever. If it was Yami or Yugi's perspective, he would mainly be called what he normally is in the original story, which is spirit, shadow, and Yami.
> 
> Yami's panic attacks are based on my own, I know they're often different for everyone, but... *shrugs* ya know, write what you know...
> 
> I might write Jounouchi's duel with Mai, but we'll see on that, I'm not sure if I'm up for doing that emotional train wreck of a duel. And speaking of emotional train wrecks...
> 
> Next chapter: Haga's actions on the train do not fair well for him, and the events following may make or break the future of the spirit of the puzzle when he confronts his partner in a sacred land.
> 
> There's gonna be a kiss next chapter, just giving you a head's up.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
